In many thermotherapy devices, the side walls can be open for better access to the infant. Thermotherapy devices with side walls that can be folded open are described, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 6,231,499 B1 and WO 2009/073693 A1. In the closed position of the side walls, the latter must be held securely locked in order to prevent the patient from falling out. The standard IEC 60601-2-19 and -2-21 specifies corresponding requirements and tests for this. The closing mechanisms for holding the side walls in the closed position are not described more specifically in the above-mentioned two documents.
Simple snap closures, which snap in either at the upper edge of the side wall located next to it or on a side edge of the compartment (space accommodating the patient, for example, bordered by an incubator hood), are used for locking the side wall parts in the closed position in many currently used types of incubators with side wall parts that can be folded open. One closure each is present on each side of the side wall part for complete locking. However, two hands or at least two consecutive actuation steps with one hand are thus necessary for locking and unlocking. However, it would be desirable in respect to handling to have the ability to bring about opening by a single actuation step with one hand. In addition, this closing mechanism requires the presence of a fixed incubator hood or compartment, with which the side wall part can be locked.
In open care, in which no hood covering the patient space is normally used, it has become generally accepted to lock the side wall parts by a closing mechanism, which is integrated in the hinges with which the side wall parts are suspended such that they can be pivoted downward. The design of such a lockable hinge is schematically shown in FIG. 4. An edge of the reclining surface 16 of a thermotherapy device, on which a side wall part 2 is suspended on the side by a hinge 3, is shown. The hinge 3 can be pivoted about a pivot axis 6 connected with the thermotherapy device. The pivot axis 6 is guided in a mount of the hinge, which mount has the cross section of an elongated hole. The hinge can therefore be raised and lowered with the side wall part when this side wall part is in the upright position, and the pivot axis 6 is displaced in the elongated hole mount in the process. The hinge is provided, further, with a pin 4, which can mesh with a groove connected rigidly with the thermotherapy device. By raising the sided wall part 2, the hinge is raised to the extent that the pin 4 separates from the groove upwardly, after which the side wall part 2 is freely pivotable. To close the side wall part, this is pivoted back. Shortly before the closed position is reached, the pin 4 comes into contact with a guide curve 5, which ensures that the hinge with the side wall part 2 is raised on it by the pin 4 sliding on the guide curve 5 to the extent that the pin 4 comes into a position above the groove, after which the side wall part 2 and the hinge 3 come into a lower position to the extent that the pin 4 is located in the groove and thus meshes with same, as a result of which the hinge 3 is blocked.
However, this kind of locking of the side wall part in the closed position is not optimal in terms of handling and generates mechanical jerks and jolts and closing noises when the pin is sliding over the edge of the guide curve, after which the entire side wall part and the hinge drop downward until the pin comes into contact with the bottom of the groove.